Medicare Enrollment Up 1.2M (9.5%) in 2012

Based on new data from CMS as shared by CSFB in a report, the enrollment in Medicare Advantage through January 12th is up 1.2M to 13.3M. This is 27% penetration into the Medicare market. PDP enrollment was up to 19.69M a similar gain of 1.2M.

“Based on our preliminary analysis of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data, Medicare Part D plans with Walgreens in their network gained market share in the aggregate, while those without Walgreens lost market share. Importantly, we were very pleased to see that those plans that included Walgreens grew nearly twice as fast as those Medicare Part D plans without Walgreens. In fact, several health plans that partnered with Walgreens grew significantly faster. For example, Coventry, who partnered with Walgreens and introduced a low cost Medicare Part D option, grew five times faster than the overall market.”

The one obvious account that he’s talking about is Wellpoint which lost 2,000 (0.3%) members in MA and 73,000 (11.6%) members in PDP.